Holography is an application of laser technology, best known for its ability to reproduce three-dimensional images. Early holography was limited to using film to record intensity and phase information of light incident on the scene. The principle of operation of film holograms or “stereoscopic photography” is that the film records the interference pattern produced by two coherent beams of light, i.e., “recording beams.” One recording beam is scattered from the scene being recorded and one recording beam is a reference beam. The interference patterns recorded on the film encode the scene's appearance from a range of viewpoints. Depending on the arrangement of the recording beams, and therefore the reconstructing and reconstructed beams, with respect to the film, the hologram may be a transmission-type or reflection-type hologram.
One example of a holographic projector that uses two coherent beams of light is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,646,773, issued to Garner, which teaches an apparatus and method for displaying three-dimensional images. The device creates and displays real-time, three-dimensional moving holograms. A computed image or virtual model of a real object is stored in a computer or dedicated digital signal processor (DSP) and the stored image or model is then converted by the computer or DSP into its Fourier, or holographic, transform. The holographic transform is displayed on a light modulation device that is illuminated by a one portion of a laser emission, while the remaining portion of the same laser emission is combined with the holographic transform at a plane to create a three-dimensional image.